No upgrade for this Platinum on a one-night stay in December. But a gold member checking in next to me was given an upgrade--as I learned on an elevator ride with him afterward.
Love the location of this hotel (I always try to stay on the Upper West Side), but there were an awful lot of downsides: check-in took over 20 minutes; front desk person checking me in did not offer Platinum amenity and looked rather cranky when I asked, politely, for it; card key did not work when I got to the door. Front desk told me to return-no offer to have anyone come up to help. So I had to wait ANOTHER twenty minutes in line to get new card key (not wanting to jump the line--everyone was in NYC "feeding frenzy" mode) --no fun after a long trans-con trip.
Room was at best okay--very basic. No way to regulate, or even turn off, heat--room was a steam bath! Windows were filthy--and I'm not someone who notices these things. But when I could barely see the building across the street, I knew something was wrong!
Some business associates came to meet me at Seppis for drinks on Saturday afternoon. A loud jazz combo was playing, so we asked to be at one of the tables at the far end of the bar; the hostess graciously accommodated us. The tables were set with linens and dinnerware, but they were NOT in the dining room proper. But when the waiter came over and heard that we were only ordering drinks, not food, he was very nasty and upset: "I've TOLD her not to do this!!" and went off grumbling. As it turned out, no one else came to sit in our section (at the relatively dead hour of 3-5 p.m) so he lost no "food" business. Indeed, we ended up ordering about $70 of wine by the glass (Seppis ain't cheap) and gave him a commensurate tip, so he did rather well. Still, his open rudeness was embarrassing, to say the least, in front of my colleagues--and very much not something I expect from a first-class hotel.
All in all, not a great first experience. I return to NYC this coming weekend on the very nice stay-two-nights-get-the-third-one-free promo. The difference between the Sheraton New York Hotel and Towers (the other almost-Upper West Side hotel) and LPM was only $150 for all three nights, but I went for the Sheraton. Just not worth it--and that's saying an awful lot, given the difference between the two brands.